"Hey, are we not having that party to celebrate Gray's love for us?"

"Excuse you?"

New drinks are set down on the tables, coupled with bags upon bags of snacks. New batches of coffee are brewed, and Cana's cracked a new barrel of rum.

"Here's your party," Loke says, like that's proof of something.

"Wait. Someone, get the alcohol away from Cana!"

She's going to die of alcohol poisoning and no one's gonna be around to stop her.

"I absolutely blame Macao and Wakaba for your drinking habit, Cana!" Erza scolds sharply. "Just because we have a lot doesn't mean you can perpetually drink it!"

"Ehhhh? Stingy."

"I'm gonna put a lock on that cabinet! Gray! Ice!"

"Lead the way."

"HEY!"

"For god's sake, if we hole up in this place for months like this, not only are you going to gain weight, you're going to die!" Mira joins in, in one of the rare moments she actually agrees with Erza. "you want an early beer gut, Cana?"

"I can drink more! I believe in it!"

"Well yeah? Cause I believe in goddamn common sense!"

"Can we get serious here? We're literally about to face imminent deaths?!"

Gray clicks his tongue. "What a pain."

"Erigor could go through the barrier though..." Levy says, remembering his confrontation with Erza, "he can make an equal barrier around himself."

"So the solution is still Erigor?"

"Or, if we could find a strong enough Wind Mage..." Natsu casts Loke a look.

Loke immediately raises his hands in surrender, "no no, I'm a Holder type. These things have a capacity limit for magic, you know? And the strong ones are expensive."

Another click of the tongue.

"We could also find an Earth mage," Cana suggests, "it's elementally superior, after all."

"Agh, that might be easier than summoning Freed, but if we can't something that's on a stronger scale than Erza's armor..."

"I am incapable of being summoned, could you stop looking at me like it's my fault for that?!"

"So, what happens if you write the rune 'anyone that steps in this box will summon Freed'?"

"That's not how my Rune Magic works and can we stop trying to summon me?! I'm calling my human rights into question!"

"You're such a killjoy."

"Ah, that guy's gonna have nightmares."

"As he should."

"Seriously, even if they succeeded, did they not think they were going to get retribution for whatever they were going to do?" Laxus mutters.

"Yeah..." Loke grimaces, "he'd basically be asking the S-class mages of every guild in Fiore to come at him."

Getting rid of the masters is just one thing. Does anyone want Jura Neekis or Gildarts Clive on their ass? Those are names famous far across Ishgar, man!

"Were they thinking they'd be able to get you guys to listen to the flute, too?"

"Nah, they can't possibly be that dumb."

"Or would they be fine just leaving their spiteful mark? They're crazy," Mira scowls, "even if the guilds don't do anything, the Magic Council's gonna catch them, and they'll just end up having jail time. That's worse than not having guild rights!"

"Seriously, did they think of anything after their plan? Did they seriously not?"

"Yes it is something to worry about?! It literally shredded your damn armour?!" Mira snaps, "what are you, an idiot?"

"If I say it's just a flesh wound, it is."

"Dear god, I don't know what's worse in this guild-- our destructive track record, or our horrific lack of self-preservation instincts," Mira mutters. "Don't be like that, okay, Lisanna?"

Lisanna chuckles, "no guarantees. I grew up here, after all."

"No no, that's not funny. You promise me right now!"

"Says you but you were doing the same a while ago..."

"Hey, I stopped soon after we got the information we needed, alright?" Erza says, defensive.

Jaws dropped.

Then, "that's it!" loud yelling over each other, Levy frantically flipping through the book. "How could we forget? We were literally talking about dispellers with him!"

"Agh, knew I was forgetting something..."

"Wait, a Dispeller isn't just for stationary magic? Like curses and all that?" Bickslow asks.

Dispellers worked with the magic circles themselves, after all-- interrupting the flow of magic and cancelling the sequence, that was something that was really tough to do. It took time and study, and lots of runic reading.

Of course, it was near impossible to do mid-battle.

"Well, I mean, the fundamentals are the same, since this is a barrier-- not exactly attacking magic..." Freed says, "I reckon Kage might know much more about Erigor's magic than we could, so he ought to know better about it."

"He did break the seal of the Lullaby, after all. This shouldn't be too much harder."

"New target!"

"Wait, wasn't that guy headed for Natsu?" Gray says, grinning. "Sweet, he's headed right for us! Saves us the trouble of hunting. His shadows would've been a pain if he hid."

"How are we gonna find Natsu, though?" Lisanna wonders.

At that, Happy has a very easy answer. "That's simple-- we just head for the noisiest place in the building..."

"HEY! I don't always make a mess, alright?!" Natsu yells, but no one looks convinced.

"Shit, they're planning something."

"Gah! That's the guy Lucy was chasing!" Natsu yelps, "he was hiding there all this time?"

"Dammit, one of them can Phase!" Levy groans, "it's the most annoying magic when you're in a building with as many rooms as this one!"

"Phase?" Happy asks.

"Phasing Magic," Lisanna explains, "you can pass through walls with it. You've seen it in the Magic Council, right? For high-security doors, you can only enter through the Phasing tool after registering."

Evergreen scoffs. "Not that you'd stand a chance with our roster."

"And with the wind barrier being made of magic, it's not like they can just Phase out of here," Loke says, "but buying time-- they can do that."

Erza clicks her tongue, "damn it."

Immediately, Gray pales. "That guy isn't planning to--!!"

"I mean, they are a Dark guild," Evergreen says. "If something's a nuisance-- just taking him out of the picture is much easier than trying to fight it."

"It's their endgame either way, so might as well kill each other, huh."

"Agh, that means Natsu's having the spotlight. Dammit."

"YeeeeEEAAAH!!"

"What a bore. Let's just jump ahead of the episodes, Levy."

"I agree."

"What's with all of your attitudes?! Let me have my glory moments in peace!"

"I said look for him, not destroy everything!"

"And since when have they been mutually exclusive?"

"Since when have they been mutually inclusive?!" Loke retorts immediately, "is this why people in our guild keep destroying things?!"

"Look left, look right, cross the road," Lisanna says, "except, Natsu kicks a wall down at the end of it."

"Seriously, Natsu! You blew the wall right next to the door! There was literally a door two steps beside it!"

"It was cooler to bust it down."

"STOP breaking things for stupid reasons!"

"Oh my goddd, Master's gonna be so mad."

"He's already going to be mad, so might as well go all out."

"Andddd, he's picking the fight."

"Well, that's great! It's exactly what I wanted!" Natsu says, absolutely happy with the turn of events, "if he stayed hiding like that he'd be a coward!"

"Staying hidden is actually the smarter choice, though."

"Ahh, well."

A loud laugh tore from the room.

"Totally using that new nickname when we meet him outside."

A loud gasp.. "Natsu knows his priorities?!"

Natsu whirls around to see that every soul in the room is shocked speechless. Even Laxus had his jaw dropped, and Natsu was going to blow a gasket.

"Oh c'mon you guys!" he snaps, "I'm not completely an idiot, okay?!"

Sure, now that he knows Erigor's gone, he'd want to punch Kage first. But if he didn't, he'd definitely know finding the man came first.

"And so the fight begins..."

"C'mon, Natsu! You can do better than this!"

"Homing attacks, huh..."

"These are annoying. But well, since those attacks are physical..."

"Natsu can just blast them away, right?"

"Hurry up and punch him, Natsu, I can't stand his face!"

"Yeah, teach him what this 'fly' guild can do!"

"Stop with that bug comparison, geez!" Evergreen snaps. Evidently, she's been a repeat victim of bug accusations already. "Are you trying to disprove them or approve them?!"

"Aye!"

"Happy, please don't use 'aye' in misleading ways!"

The cheer resounded through the hall.

"Yeah this is the fist of a dragon, damn it!" Natsu declares, "eat that and try being all smug again, you bastard!"

"Hey hey, don't knock him out or anything. We still need him."

"Control your strength a little-- oh," Erza pauses, realizing her mistake. "My bad. That's evidently impossible."

Natsu squawks, "can you guys not be mean to me for one episode?!"

"See, Natsu. Normal people don't cause earthquakes, okay?" Lisanna says.

"Uhm, like any of us in this room can talk?" Levy mutters, rolling her eyes. "Just last week, you broke a historical cottage in Lupinus!"

Lisanna sputters. "It wasn't my fault! I was just-- I sneezed, okay?! Cause of pollen!"

"In your rabbit form, which is surprisingly very destruction I am very proud of you--"

"--you're NOT helping, Mira! I'm not even going to mention your track record!"

"If we're talking damage, Levy , you caused a toxic spill in Hargeon."

"That was an accident! Plus, it wouldn't have been so bad if Gray didn't go naked brains and light a cigarette!"

"...I'll admit, that wasn't my brightest moment."

"Man, I don't remember Nee-san being this bad before we joined the guild," Elfman mutters. No one mentions that no one expected him to have even a fraction of that insanity potential either. "Is it the guild mark? Is it infectious through guild mark application?"

"What the--"

"Ah, because if things are exploding, it's Natsu. If people are screaming, it's Erza. If there's uncomfortable silence, it's probably Gray," Happy irons out the list really easily.

"I resent the implications," Erza mutters, "but you're right."

"Dude, you make Gray sound terrifying."

"I don't kill people, I just freeze them, okay? They're quiet because they're frozen, not dead!"

"Maybe because you keep--!! I'm not going to try. I'm not going to."

"I mean, at least you got your revenge, that's great. Now, we've got better things to do?"

"Decoyama?"

"Deco as in Decoration or Dekoboko?"

"Whatever, man."